Mumbai: Probe ordered in death of St George’s Hospital staffer

The staterun St Georgersquos Hospital has been at the centre of a controversy following the death of one of its employees The deceasedrsquos family has alleged medical negligence against two senior residents and one Chief Medical Officer of St Georgersquos Hospital On Thursday a threemember committee was appointed to investigate any possible lapses between 554 pm and 850 pm on Wednesday the time the patient arrived at the hospital to the point he was pronounced deadThe committee was set up on orders of medical education minister Hassan Mushrif ldquoThere are three heads of department from J J hospital who will be heading it committee This will include Dr Ajay Bhandarwar from the surgery department Dr Vidya Nagar from the medicine department and Dr Bhalachandra Chiklakar from the forensic science departmentrdquo said Dr Vinayak Sawardekar medical superintendent of the hospitalThere are two versions of the story that this committee will investigate One is that of the relatives who allege their kin died due to shortage of senior doctors and was attended by juniors till the very end ldquoMy son was left unattended by senior doctors for two to three hoursrdquo said Kailash Chauhan father of 32yearold Anish Chauhan He was taken to the hospital after suffering grievous head injuries and died just as he was about to be treated after suffering a seizure Another version that the committee will look into is that of the hospitalrsquos which is firm on its stand that two senior resident doctors were present till the endThe big question raised by the family was why was the medical officer absent at the time of the ordeal ldquoThe CMO was in a postmortem when the patient had arrivedrdquo said Dr Ganesh Bhandare resident medical officer When asked if the outcome would have been different if CMO was present while the patient was being attended to he said ldquoIt is difficult to answer but we are certain that the process was followedrdquo added Dr Bhandare He was not clear if the CMO was present any time between the time the patient arrived at the hospital to the time he passed away However Dr Sawardekar said ldquoThe CMO was not there for 15 minutes but she was present by 615 pmrdquoWhile the hospital claims the patient was inebriated at the time of treatment the family has denied it ldquoHe used to drink but on that day we know that he was not under the influence of alcoholrdquo said ChauhanTimelineldquoThe patient entered the gate at 554 pm he entered the casualty at 558 pm The basic treatment started immediately where his history was taken which took about 10 to 15 min At 618 pm the patient was attended by senior surgery residents who again examined him and took the history till 635 pm after which they asked him to get admitted but he refusedrdquo said Dr BhandareDetailing the timeline further he added ldquoSoon after that he was then sent for XRay with a ward attendant and the process took about seven to eight minutes The patient did not hand over the XRay to the doctor in the casualty and went to minor OT for sutures It took the doctor about 10 to 15 min to realise that the patient had not come back with his Xray reportsrdquo Dr Bhandare saidHe claimed these details are part of CCTV footage ldquoThe doctor posted went to the XRay department to check on the patient and then went to minor OT from there From there the patientrsquos hair had to be shaved for the sutures which was a basic treatment for an injury of 2 cmrdquo Dr Bhandare saidHe is unsure of the events that unfolded in the minor OT as there are no cameras inside He is also unsure if the barber was called in to shave the head or if it was the doctors who themselves did it as the hospital ldquois severely shortstaffed on barbers as well as wardattendantsrdquo After the patient died a large crowd gathered outside Dr Bhandarersquos office seeking accountabilityRajeev Nivatkar state commissioner of medical education said ldquoThe committeersquos probe will also be looking into the extent of which any shortage played a role But from our understanding the shortage is not connected to the incident that has occurredrdquo While the specific data with regards to J J Group of Hospitals was unavailable till going to the press 2022 figures for statewide medical college hospitals show that out of the 1765 posts for assistant professors 824 are vacant Meanwhile 168 of 490 professor posts are vacant